10 experiments you can try to improve discovery

Experiment 1: Can’t interview? Don’t start.

Data/research suggests that

teams can wait for weeks to carry out their first interviews with users when they have to develop a route to users. This means that the first few weeks of discovery may have limited return on investment and the final weeks are over-loaded with interviews and do not have enough time for the team to draw conclusions before discovery ends

So if we try

starting discovery when the first interview can take place within 3 days

And measure

time taken for first interview

time taken to complete discovery

% of discoveries requiring extensions

confidence in discovery insights

We should see this change

better insights from discovery (with ‘better’ defined as team and stakeholder confidence in these insights)

Experiment 2: Subject matter experts are invaluable

Data/research suggests that

subject matter experts being a core member of a discovery team increases the value of the discovery (and may reduce the time taken to complete discovery)

So if we try

increasing the involvement of subject matter experts with the core discovery team (where this is useful)